Last year, my organization published an excellent book entitled Organic Disciplemaking by Dennis McCallum and Jessica Lowery. This book is possibly the most important book I've read in five years because it provides an exhaustive look at the way the disciplemaking member-leaders at Xenos Christian Fellowship move a new believer into a disciple of Christ and a discipler of other new believers. The church has an impressive statistic: Over 80% of the church body is discipling someone or being discipled by someone. That, my friend, is an amazing find in North America.
I must say though, despite the excellent writing style, personal stories, and "no rock left unturned" attitude by the authors, the book has not sold as well as I hoped. After all, in a previous blog entry, I ranted about the complete absence of discipleship in many US churches today.
I must revisit this issue of making disciples over and over again, charging at the issue from numerous directions. Each church must discover their own unique way of moving every committed believer from spiritual infancy to adolescence to maturing believer to spiritual parent. It's not something one can hope happens on its own or it would have happened by now, right?
As I look at the history of Xenos, their seemingly "organic" culture of discipleship wasn't a naturally occurring chain of events. It began as a very determined, people-centered, relationally-driven program to equip a collection of house church members to do more than they'd ever done for Christ. The house churches wanted affiliation with other house churches, and they wanted the benefit of the excellent Bible teaching that a few of the house church pastors possessed.
[I won't go into the history of the church and how very differently it operates on nearly every single level of ministry and membership. If you want to learn this information, I highly recommend visiting the Xenos' expansive web site.]
I recently had a conversation with a pastor who is opposed to a programmic discipleship path to maturity, saying it's too lock-step. He commented that any curriculum driven process would be too mechanical for his church.
Of course, when I asked what he was doing to insure each member of the church was becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, he didn't have much of anything to share that was substantive. The new member class and existing programs every church member was encouraged to attend did not teach Bible basics, tenants of the faith, how to develop spiritual disciplines, etc.
I see a huge challenge to implement a discipleship program in churches that have none today. People are busy and many who have been small group members for a while or are currently leading a small group think they are disciples when they are simply faithful attendees. "Rolling out" a new discipleship program that every person in the church should move through immediately is going work as well as Moses telling a million Israelites to walk into the parted Red Sea simultaneously, which we all know didn't happen, right? [Moses stepped in first, followed by his family, followed by the leaders and their families, followed by others, and on it went until they were all in it and through it.]
Developing and implementing an organic discipleship process in a local church has even more challenges. A relationally-driven pathway where individuals see the need to become a spiritual parent and take a young believer through the stages of maturity required to achieve a level of maturity that produces more fruit is far more difficult to develop than widespread program involvement.
Yet, Xenos has done it, so I know it can be done! Churches can develop a culture in which the members of the church, who live and serve in Biblical communities (holistic small groups) and live out the mandate to make disciples.
What I would like from you, dear reader, is a comment about how your church and you are making disciples. Share as much as you can so others can learn what works in America. Is it a program or book-driven process? Is it relational and milestone or goal oriented? Is what you are doing working so well you're smiling right now? If so, the rest of us need to know what's working in your church.
[BTW, I am seeing others blog about this blog, but I sure would appreciate some sort of feedback from you as a reader if you got all the way down to this part of the post! Let me know if you're reading it through an email or comment!]
New Leader Training. What works best?
I'm working with a pastor who is developing his own small group leader training. I think it's a great idea for each church to develop their own process for raising up and releasing members of groups to lead members of new groups. Taking responsibility in this area will keep the pastoral staff's minds and hearts involved in the small group ministry, create relationship connections between staff pastors and group leaders, and promote missional group direction.
I do have a couple of thoughts on what makes for a good training program. The features of an excellent training process for new small group leaders should have a firm foundation in:
1. Relational development with the trainer and other participants
2. Experiential learning through trial and error (psychomotor activity)
Let me briefly expand on these foundational components...
Relational Development with the trainer and other participants
I'm often asked if our ministry has small group leader training on DVD. While I'm caving into pressure and producing some this year, I'm not a big fan of DVD-based training in the church. It further removes a relational way of developing leaders found in both the Old and New Testaments.
Jesus' example of developing leaders is excellent. He chose unlikely young men who didn't make the cut to go to the synagogue and become a priest (every Jewish parent's dream for their sons) and were fishing to make ends meet to help their families survive. He then spent a lot of time getting to know them in a place they were very comfortable, which was the shores of Lake Galilee and in a boat. As he served them and helped them catch fish, he proved he was the true Messiah, and not like any of the other false Messiahs that had come before him or were concurrently proclaiming to be God on earth.
After a season of sowing into their lives, he asked them to sow into his life and assist him in ministry. For quite some time, they protected him, helped out with big events, did administrative tasks, and acted like village idiots some of the time. It's no wonder they weren't chosen for priesthood through the traditional rabbinical school!
However, God transforms people through Christ and he transformed stinky fisherman through a relationship with Jesus, the son of God and the Christ who lives among us and inside us today as Christians.
This kind of leadership development is something that was done with me and I in turn do it with others. I was mentored for three years in ministry by a man named Greg. Greg took me under his wing, telling me I had great potential but said I was lazy and had a lot of issues I had to work through. Those three years were both exciting and tough on me. His dedication to discipling me into a much stronger, motivated man of God taught me a lot about developing others, which I am currently doing.
Last weekend, I went to a race track to watch a couple of my unsaved buddies drive their sports cars. That same morning, I was to have breakfast with a member of one of the groups I coach, so I invited him to go along with me for the day. What this fellow does not yet know is that I will be inviting him to do a lot of things with me that will develop him into a disciplemaking man of God, not just one who loves God personally.
Developing future leaders through relationship takes a lot of time. Time most staff pastors just don't have because of the many things they are responsible to do. However, training future leaders in a weekend event or giving them a Saturday morning "knowledge dump" about leading a small group rarely produces competent leaders. So, something must change with the pastor's job description or his or her priorities to forge more relationships with current and future leaders during the training process.
Of course, existing group leaders and coaches can be a great help and support in the leadership training process and they should be employed as well.
Experiential learning through trial and error
Most small group leader training is done in the realm of cognitive training. Pastors lecture a group on the do's and don'ts of leading a small group and fill the heads of the participants with as much knowledge as possible. As mentioned above, this knowledge usually comes in one shotgun blast of a weekend event, where the mind is saturated in a matter of minutes (or a couple of hours for the really sharp participants) and the rest goes in one ear and out the other.
I personally do not learn much from lectures. I am a kinesthetic learner, or one who must practice doing what I am learning for the principles to sink in and be truly learned. In fact, this kind of "psychomotor" activity is how most people gain competence and confidence doing most everything in life.
So, future small group leaders need longer term "on the job" training to see themselves as a leader when they look in a mirror. A cognitive dump of information on a weekend training event isn't gonna cut it, and will only produce partially knowledgeable people who feel ill-equipped to lead... and the groups suffer.
The best training looks like this...
1. Stretch the leader training out over six months. This gives the participants time to grow into the role by doing something new in leading the group in which they are a member. It also allows them to create a friendship with the trainer, who has four weeks between training events to connect with them to see how they're doing.
2. Meet in the trainer's home. This bonds the trainer to the participant in a special way.
3. Eat a meal together at the monthly meeting, and use the meal time to talk about the homework assignment and what God is saying to the participants as they learn to serve in a leadership capacity.
4. Work with the existing leader and coach over the group in which the participant is currently involved to insure they are given opportunities to do their practical assignments and take responsibility from the existing group leader.
5. Applaud failure as the best teacher. Success teaches very little if not proceeded by at least some failure.
Now let me ask you, what have you found to be the best foundational training for raising up new leaders in your small group ministry?
I do have a couple of thoughts on what makes for a good training program. The features of an excellent training process for new small group leaders should have a firm foundation in:
1. Relational development with the trainer and other participants
2. Experiential learning through trial and error (psychomotor activity)
Let me briefly expand on these foundational components...
Relational Development with the trainer and other participants
I'm often asked if our ministry has small group leader training on DVD. While I'm caving into pressure and producing some this year, I'm not a big fan of DVD-based training in the church. It further removes a relational way of developing leaders found in both the Old and New Testaments.
Jesus' example of developing leaders is excellent. He chose unlikely young men who didn't make the cut to go to the synagogue and become a priest (every Jewish parent's dream for their sons) and were fishing to make ends meet to help their families survive. He then spent a lot of time getting to know them in a place they were very comfortable, which was the shores of Lake Galilee and in a boat. As he served them and helped them catch fish, he proved he was the true Messiah, and not like any of the other false Messiahs that had come before him or were concurrently proclaiming to be God on earth.
After a season of sowing into their lives, he asked them to sow into his life and assist him in ministry. For quite some time, they protected him, helped out with big events, did administrative tasks, and acted like village idiots some of the time. It's no wonder they weren't chosen for priesthood through the traditional rabbinical school!
However, God transforms people through Christ and he transformed stinky fisherman through a relationship with Jesus, the son of God and the Christ who lives among us and inside us today as Christians.
This kind of leadership development is something that was done with me and I in turn do it with others. I was mentored for three years in ministry by a man named Greg. Greg took me under his wing, telling me I had great potential but said I was lazy and had a lot of issues I had to work through. Those three years were both exciting and tough on me. His dedication to discipling me into a much stronger, motivated man of God taught me a lot about developing others, which I am currently doing.
Last weekend, I went to a race track to watch a couple of my unsaved buddies drive their sports cars. That same morning, I was to have breakfast with a member of one of the groups I coach, so I invited him to go along with me for the day. What this fellow does not yet know is that I will be inviting him to do a lot of things with me that will develop him into a disciplemaking man of God, not just one who loves God personally.
Developing future leaders through relationship takes a lot of time. Time most staff pastors just don't have because of the many things they are responsible to do. However, training future leaders in a weekend event or giving them a Saturday morning "knowledge dump" about leading a small group rarely produces competent leaders. So, something must change with the pastor's job description or his or her priorities to forge more relationships with current and future leaders during the training process.
Of course, existing group leaders and coaches can be a great help and support in the leadership training process and they should be employed as well.
Experiential learning through trial and error
Most small group leader training is done in the realm of cognitive training. Pastors lecture a group on the do's and don'ts of leading a small group and fill the heads of the participants with as much knowledge as possible. As mentioned above, this knowledge usually comes in one shotgun blast of a weekend event, where the mind is saturated in a matter of minutes (or a couple of hours for the really sharp participants) and the rest goes in one ear and out the other.
I personally do not learn much from lectures. I am a kinesthetic learner, or one who must practice doing what I am learning for the principles to sink in and be truly learned. In fact, this kind of "psychomotor" activity is how most people gain competence and confidence doing most everything in life.
So, future small group leaders need longer term "on the job" training to see themselves as a leader when they look in a mirror. A cognitive dump of information on a weekend training event isn't gonna cut it, and will only produce partially knowledgeable people who feel ill-equipped to lead... and the groups suffer.
The best training looks like this...
1. Stretch the leader training out over six months. This gives the participants time to grow into the role by doing something new in leading the group in which they are a member. It also allows them to create a friendship with the trainer, who has four weeks between training events to connect with them to see how they're doing.
2. Meet in the trainer's home. This bonds the trainer to the participant in a special way.
3. Eat a meal together at the monthly meeting, and use the meal time to talk about the homework assignment and what God is saying to the participants as they learn to serve in a leadership capacity.
4. Work with the existing leader and coach over the group in which the participant is currently involved to insure they are given opportunities to do their practical assignments and take responsibility from the existing group leader.
5. Applaud failure as the best teacher. Success teaches very little if not proceeded by at least some failure.
Now let me ask you, what have you found to be the best foundational training for raising up new leaders in your small group ministry?
Who's to blame for the lack of new small group leaders in many churches?
I've given this question a lot of thought. After three cups of very strong expresso, I feel confident that I can tackle this question with two bits of fabric-free truth.
1) Discipleship. Where did it go?
The last time I read my Bible, the Great Commandment was still in force. If the church was busy making disciples, we'd have more small group leaders than we could handle.
Oddly enough, when I ask pastors of leader-starved small group ministries to tell me about their discipleship path to spiritual maturity—you know, the one that every single member of the small groups is moving through—I hear, "We decided to go ahead and train leaders and launch groups. We haven't crossed that bridge yet."
The naked truth is rather obvious, isn't it? If a church doesn't maintain a dogged determination to disciple people into spiritual maturity and enter into small group ministry with discipleship at the center of it, they'll always be starved for leaders.
2) Relational coaching is weak or non-existent.
Traditionally, the existing small group leader has the task of finding and training someone to take over his or her group so a new one can start out of the original group. I don't care what the books by experts say. This doesn't happen consistently in any of my groups. It takes an additional friendship with the coach for it to happen.
Sadly, most coaching structures in churches are new and frail. When I encourage coaches to befriend future leaders, either the pastor over groups or the coaches themselves tell me they do not have the time to do this. In fact, the coaches complain that they have been asked to do too much already, and can't visit groups now and then or meet with leaders consistently.
The naked truth here is that appointing coaches and assuming they are investing in the lives of their existing leaders as well as future leaders is foolish.
So who's to blame?
You decide. Is it the senior pastor who uses small groups solely for a retention strategy for his rapidly congregation? Or does the blame go to the short-sighted leadership team who wants a small group program to increase member fellowship and community?
I do not believe I corner the market on the truth. So, you tell me. Who's to blame?
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